Wednesday’s Coffee Table started off with guests sharing fond anecdotes and memories of Murnane. Tela O’Donnell, who grew up with Murnane, shared a few of her favorite childhood memories. In each of the stories O’Donnell shared, was a theme of unfettered positivity.
“She just engaged, you know, she was able to really engage in the world. And I think that, you know, as adulthood came and life happened, the world is like, not as easy, you know, and it's an it's harsh, and Duffy just wasn't, she was gentle. And I think the world was a lot for her. But that is my memory of her is being able to really fully engage with the world,” O’Donnell said.
Armed with that positivity, Murnane was credited with the innate ability to connect with children. As an adult she went to school studying childhood development. Additionally she worked in some Montessori programs working with kids, aiming to build on each child's own creativity and interests. O’Donnell said kid’s felt connected to her.
“I think that that connection that kids have with Duffy is that she just had this unconditional caring where she laid down like really clear expectations like that confidence came through expectations and rules and a nice little, you know, boundaries for them, and then just adored them so unconditionally, that I think that kids were able to really just feel so, you know, loved and cared for and respected and she became there as you know, she became their caretaker unconditionally, like without a without even a thought,” O’Donnell said.
After the tragic loss of Anesha “Duffy” Murnane, her parents, Sarah and Ed Berg, commissioned the creation of a memorial bench. The bench features figures of those who are missing and those who are left grieving.
Sarah and Ed Berg began finding out how many people go through the pain of having loved ones go missing each year. According to Ed Berg, Murnane’s step-father, the bench would raise awareness, and it would be for everyone.
“The bench then, it was no longer just a memorial to Duffy. I mean it was designed to the raise the issue of the missing and murdered so you know, there isn't you don't see Duffy's face on this suspension, when she's pretty much there in spirit,” Berg said.
Homer artist Brad Hughes has been working to bring Sarah and Ed’s vision to fruition. Through the whole project, Hughes put every ounce of energy into his work. He said, after nine months of sculpting, and more time casting, He became more and more involved.
“It has been really difficult to stop working on it. And when we got this terrible news about what actually happened, I began to get a piece of what Sara and add and Gregory have all gone through. And it's just a piece but I'm telling you i i become so involved in it that I can't recover. I can't recover from what I've learned. And I'm really glad I'm finished. Because I'm not sure I could face it anymore. It's at the truth. But I have finished and I finished in style,” Hughes said.
“And what I did with this is to make it something that is beautiful, which I hope that people will see. Its elegance and its design, and it's motion. With this dark subject, and I think that some artists deal with these things by, in different ways, but the marriage here is that beauty is also part of our life. It is fundamental, and it's fundamental to express ourselves continually. In most cultures. The last thing that's left is the artwork,” Hughes said.
The Bring Duffy Homer Facebook page has more information about the bench, along with updates and a place to donate. The Duffy Memorial and Bench Dedication will take place Sunday, June 12th at 1pm outside the Homer Public Library in Homer.
You can hear the full, hour long Coffee Table anytime at kbbi.org or as a podcast on your favorite app.
